Beastmaster of the Ages

The two of them entered a grand hall that was a little too brightly illuminated that it hurt the eyes. Ahead was a man in a crown and astral gown, looking down on them. The divinespring in his chest shone so bright that it was hard for those in front of him to look up.

"Ye Chen, how do you feel?" said the man in a deep voice.

Ye Chen took a deep breath and had the princess loosen her hold on him. "I encountered my destined rival. Thanks to my recent explosive growth, I also began to underestimate my enemy. I'd thought that he was insignificant at first, but now I see how lucky it was for me to have been able to face someone like him. I fully admit that this loss today is my fault, but I refuse to believe that it'll stay the same for the millennia to come. With a rival like that, I'm motivated to put in far more effort than I ever would've. As long as I haven't restored my honor, I shall not rest." He had pondered those words for quite a long time.

"Very well. You seem to be quite lucid about your situation. However, a price must be paid for your loss all the same. As long as you haven't reclaimed your honor, you shall endure public criticism. Even those of our dynasty shall look upon you with shame, understood?"

"Yes. This is only fair."

"At the end of the day, you're still far from your peak. Such a loss can only aid you. As for whether you'll forever remain beneath someone else's feet, it all depends on you."

"Yes, Sovereign! Perhaps I might even have found the key to open the gates of the Solar stage. That's what I gained from the battle," Ye Chen said, his eyes filled with passion.

"We'll talk more when you succeed. You're dismissed."

"Understood!"

"Shen Yu, stay back," said the man.

The princess started for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Ye Chen gave her one last look before leaving. He stood at the door for some time, and soon, the princess emerged. Her eyes seemed a little red as she slumped into his embrace the moment she left. "I'm sorry... my feelings were out of control, so I wasn't able to speak out for you. It won't happen again."

"It's not a big deal. I'm not a petty person like that. Let's go," Ye Chen said with a smile. He leaned against her shoulder as they walked along, though he turned back to look at the hall. There's no ounce of sentimentality at all, huh? It's nothing but transactions with them. If I win, they cheer. If I lose, they jeer.... When I win, she's Wanwan, and when I lose, she's Princess Shen Yu all of a sudden. Is this how all divineglorians are?

His mocking thoughts didn't show on his face. Either way, he had clearly seen everything. He thought he had found himself a home he could truly belong to, yet now it seemed he was just another contractor they could cast away without batting an eye.

......

Tianming returned to Myriadmile City covered in glory. He had a feeling that he would be staying there for quite some time. This time around, he had found true stability. Among the crowd, he could see waves of people and bustling activity all across the city. It was on a much grander scale than the welcome parade he had received. It seemed that everyone from the Violetcloud Imperium was out to welcome him on the streets, the roofs, and in the sky. Deafening cheers rang out the moment he entered the city, filled with boundless passion and worship. His status within the imperium had risen yet again.

"Li Tianming!" they called out his name with zealous fervor.

"Welcome back, Hero!"

The crowds were so dense that Shengui even had to clear the way and get them to calm down. It was thanks to Ye Chen's miraculous achievements that Tianming's reputation had gained such a huge boost after the duel.

"The Goldseal Archclan congratulates you, Li Tianming!"

The battle had stunned all of the top clans in the imperium. The Goldseal Archclan was a top clan that had existed since ancient history, being one of the historic hegemons of the imperium. The other top clans also came to congratulate Tianming; only their patriarchs were absent from the fanfare.

Tianming had already gotten Yin Chen to gather information for him. The imperium had a five plus one power structure. The reason it was five plus one rather than six was because it was a combination of the Pentarchy of the Astral Archclans with the newly risen Gong Prime Clan, which was also known as the Armstotem Clan. Sovereign Starfeather was from the Gong Prime Clan.

The reason for the distinction between the Gong Prime Clan and the rest was that the Pentarchy of the Astral Archclans, which included the Goldseal Archclan, were the true founders of the imperium. They had ruled over it for as long as people could remember, with successive sovereigns always coming from one of the five archclans. Even now, the majority of imperium subjects were in the faction of the Pentarchy.

The Gong Prime Clan were known as the Armstotem Clan, as their totems took the form of combat arms. They used to be one of the twenty-three great families subordinate to the five archclans and had a far smaller foundation and history compared to them, but they had begun rising in the past three hundred thousand years. Nearly half of all the sovereigns of the imperium during that time were from their clan, causing their influence to explosively grow in a relatively short timescale to the point that they rivaled the Pentarchy of the Astral Archclans in scale. Even putting aside the sovereign, the Gong Prime Clan would still rank among the top three clans in the imperium.

Feeling their hegemony challenged, the archclans of the Pentarchy formed a tight alliance, not allowing the Gong Prime Clan to join them and turn them into a hexarchy. Even so, their might and influence couldn't be passed off like nothing.

As the Violetcloud Imperium was a sect, in a sense, clans could exist within them. But when it came to legitimacy and authority, the Pentarchy still commanded most of it, not that the Gong Prime Clan cared for the empty title of archclan. In a way, it was like how the Sterling House of Fang had come to occupy a crucial role in the Archaion Sect despite not being the orthodox descendants of the sect's founding clan.

Naturally, the clans had different ways and attitudes to ruling. Though the Gong Prime Clan seemed to be enjoying relative prosperity during the reign of Sovereign Starfeather, they might come under huge pressure once the next sovereign wasn't from their clan. The old guard always stood unified against the new, after all. That was how Divineglory Dynasty differed from Violetcloud Imperium. There, power was passed down through a predefined dynastic lineage of divineglorians.

The world of sovereigns is truly wondrous. There can only be one sovereign in the imperium, and the next can only rise once the previous dies. Maybe that's because the Omnisentient Will of half a star can only sustain the existence of one sovereign.